Should Weight Loss Supplement Advertisements Be Banned?

Every time you flip a magazine, change channels, or go online, you are struck with images of models who are super skinny with flashy outfits and have excessive make-up on. Ads not only try to sell their products, but also promote how females should look like. These models are airbrushed and photo shopped which is false advertisement. The media progressively encourages a thinner body image as the ideal for women. We see advertisements every day. Some of these ads use manipulative strategies that influence our choices and spending habits. For example, “One in every three articles in leading teen girl magazines included a focus on appearance, and most advertisements used appeal to beauty to sell their products.”(Teen Health) To grab the viewers’ attention, especially females, they include

Advertising is an over 200$ billion industry and according to Jean Kilbourne, people are exposed to over 3000 advertisements a day. Advertisements are everywhere so there is no escaping them; they are on TV, magazines, billboards, etc. These ads tell women and girls that what’s most important is how they look, and they surround us with the image of "ideal female beauty". However, this flawlessness cannot be achieved. It’s a look that’s been created through Photoshop, airbrushing, cosmetics, and computer retouching. There have been many studies done that have found a clear link between exposure to the thin ideal in the mass media to body dissatisfaction, thin ideal internalization, and eating disorders among women. Body dissatisfaction is negative thoughts that a person has about his or her own body. Thin ideal internalization is when a person believes that thinness is equivalent to attractiveness and will lead to positive life outcomes. Less than 5% of women actually have the body type that is shown of

Have you ever been watching television and a commercial for Hydroxycut comes on featuring a male or female who went from 250 pounds to 150 pounds and looks like a fitness model just from using Hydroxycut? Although these results may seem extreme this is what many fitness advertisements promote; portraying unrealistic body images and displaying false results. Fitness advertising can be found in print and broadcast forms. While fitness advertising can be viewed as having both positives and negatives, I believe fitness advertising is negative. This paper will discuss the negatives of fitness advertising, to include creating negative body images and promoting false results. It will, also, address the counterarguments against fitness advertising being negative.

The amount of obese and overweight individuals is increasing every year in the United States. With 33.9% of American adults obese, and 34.4% overweight, but not obese, more and more people are looking for any alternative to lose weight (Anonymous 2011). If someone told you that they knew of a weight loss pill that actually works, would you consider it?

The fallacies in this ad are that this pill will not get you the results that you see these have just by strictly taking these pills as directed on the bottle. We all know that you must no matter what these ad say have proper diet and exercise in order for these pill to work there is no miracle pill that will allow you eat what you want to eat and still get the results that you see in the ad.

Advertisement of diet pills generally entails one or both of two appeals: their 'quick fix' strategy, and their composition of 'natural' substances. Magazine advertisement of Hydroxycut, which can be found in many women's magazines, focuses on the first method. At first glance, the full-page ad presents a young woman, obviously pleased with the effects of the treatment. Beside her smiling facade are photographs comparing her figures before and after taking the pills. The 'before' image depicts an unhappy, overweight, unfit, pale, disheveled individual. In contrast, the 'after' photo shows a happy, thin, fit, tan, made-up woman. Above these pictures, in bold type, is the quotation, "Losing 31 pounds was so easy with Hydroxycut!" Under this statement, the advertisement claims that Hydroxycut helps you "lose fat fast."

The advertisement inside the “FITNESSRX”, is advertising Hydroxycut, a product by MUSCLETECH. Hydroxycut is a dietary supplement that contains caffeine and plant extracts. The company states that it gives you extreme energy to improve performance in the gym with their so called “cutting edge” formula. This advertisement states that the product is not only for people who are overweight but for people that want the extra edge on getting cut like a pro bodybuilder. In the corner of the ad there is an article stating that studies show in 60 days you’ll lose 10.95 pounds, this message gives off the impression that if you take the pills you will lose that much weight, they didn't mention that you also have to diet and work hard. MUSCLETECH makes this product sound as if it’s the magic pill

It is no doubt that with every day passed we are lurking after so many unhealthy activities which are making our body a shelter for disease. Conditions like being overweight is the result of some unhealthy eating habits which we have no control on. Diet pills or supplements in this domain are getting popular, most of them are being sold for no reason. When it comes to lose weight health market is soaked with the fake weight loss products which only aims to clean up your wallet and gives you nothing in return. When you buy a diet pill make sure the product is backed up by some scientific research since it will be reacting with your body’s system and you don’t want to engulf anything which you don’t know about.

Dietary pills manufacturers emphasize that their supplements are intended to intensify the effects of exercise and diet. In contradiction, some doctors think these cannot deliver so much impact and will only shrink the consumers’ wallet. They are pointing out to the lack of strong evidence that could stand the claim they can aid weight loss successfully.

Accompanying unrealistic images of women, the media spends billions of dollars yearly to advertise the various techniques that eliminate body discontents such as dieting pills and exercising machines, and exploits female magazine reader’s insecurities. Whether magazine advertisements aid in the gradual depletion of body image or fail to impact it at all will be the purpose of this investigation, supplemented by a literature review and organized by a theoretical framework, to support a firm analysis.

The fact must be faced; obesity is increasing in numbers. However, it is interesting to note that as the number of overweight individuals increases, so too does the various methods of reducing caloric and fat intake. In today’s busy society Americans are willing to try almost any weight loss product on the market in order to reach their goal of "thinness. Americans are turning to herbal supplements in record numbers as a means of attaining their dietary needs and goals. One of the best selling herbal supplements on the market is Metabolife 356â (http://www.metabolife.com/news/100199.htm).

Studies show that young girls are more afraid of becoming overweight than they are of a nuclear war, cancer, or losing their parents (Self Image/Media Influences). As we grow up, we learn to absorb everything around us like a sponge. We see the skinny Barbie doll and muscular action figures, and naturally begin to believe this is what a normal body should be. Today, everywhere you walk you will see footprints of the media shouting out the newest fat-blasting secrets and daily weight loss tips. What is unnoticed is the people affected by these ads. They are the ones suffering from extreme self-consciousness, and who spend their time crying in front of the mirror because they are embarrassed by their appearance. As the media continues to shatter

Today 's society is constantly presented with misrepresentations of the ideal body image through the advertising of diet plans and supplements. Companies in the fitness industry scam people into buying useless products or services by advertising with individuals that have, what the mass media sees as, the 'perfect ' body composition. In addition to getting consumers to buy into a product or service, these companies also aid society with the spreading of this fake idea of what classifies as the perfect body. They portray a body image that is unattainable for most individuals in society, despite how many of those supplements being advertised they buy. The models used in these advertisements, are in most cases, starving themselves, enhanced via illegal substances, or are photo-shopped to the point where even they do not look like the model displayed in the ad. All this has led to many people wanting to strive for that perfect body, that in reality, is impossible to achieve. In order to show the affect these advertisements play in our society, I will be deconstructing multiple ads in the fitness industry, as well as multiple peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles centered around the impact media has on an individual 's self-image.

The men in these advertisements look nothing like me, despite me being tall, it is still not enough. The media has put into my perception that slender, though muscular, bodies are more successful in romance, career and are self-confidence. These assumptions that the media has portrayed in my mind has left me questioning myself about my own physical body. I quite remember looking at the mirror and seeing that I had belly fat and my arms looked like a shrimp’s compared to the ideal men. I felt incompetent and worthless because the ideology that was put into my mind and my assumption that without the ideal body my career and romance life would come to an end. So I decided I needed to change, so I signed up for the gym to bulk up. This was no accident that I retreated to the gym, supposedly the media idea of achieving the ideal body is realized by working out, dieting, and cosmetic surgery. Pressure was also put on me by women, friends, other men and my parents, especially my father. Through advice like “Be a Man”, something that is easily said, but carried the weight of its message. I was expected to take charge. So I did by taking control of my body with exercise and drinking protein shakes and cutting down my food intake to meet the standards of society. This provided me with a sense of direction, control and achievement; however, it risked my health with symptoms of having eating disorders. Similarly, I have seen many men and women, mostly women,

A beautiful, thin woman in a bikini smiles happily at the viewer from a contorted pose as the pill ad she is on declares that it is a guaranteed weight-loss supplement. Weight loss ads are primarily targeted to women, so it is usually a woman that will be featured on the cover. Something I’ve noticed is that health communication messages for women are almost always tied in with appearance, so I chose an ad that has to do with both. I’ve found that it is rare to find an ad that is about promoting health that does not also appeal to vanity.